


An Awfully Big Adventure

by Uncannycory



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Drowning, Grandma Jade is dead sorry, M/M, Merman Dave Strider, Merman Dirk Strider, Mermen and Mermaid au, Near Death Experiences, Shipwrecks, Stranded, deserted island
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:15:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25639378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uncannycory/pseuds/Uncannycory
Summary: You knew you were dying then. What a way to go out. Kraken of all things! And no one to live to tell the tale. Unless someone did, but that was seeming more unlikely as you stared at the most beautiful man in the world, floating in the unnatural light cut across the wreckage of the ship.Famed adventurer Jake English is set to spend threegloriousmonths exploring an uncharted island in the middle of the Pacific. Everything seems so right, until he finds himself stranded in a cave far from home.
Relationships: Jake English/Dirk Strider
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheSparrowInGold](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSparrowInGold/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to [thesparrowingold](http://thesparrowingold.tumblr.com) for letting me use their art as inspo for this fic.  
> I only post from my phone, as I currently dont have a working computer, so someone please tell me if i need to resize the image.

You were supposed to hit land soon, be dropped off in a little dingy to set off on your next big adventure. You'd have your radio, your supplies, and you wouldn't have another soul to contend with for another  _ three months _ . How glorious. How exciting. It would be only with dread that you counted down those blessed ninety days until the ship would pull back up to the newly-charted and yet unexplored island to pick you back up.

So you were excited to say the least. Downright chipper you could even call it. Fairly annoying, one of the sailors mumbled under his breath. But that was okay, you were going to be dropped off within the next couple hours and then your excited, chipper and annoying self would be out of their hair. Until then, you helped where you could. You'd been on enough boats in your life to know what you're doing, and you think that's been the saving grace in the area of not being thrown tail over teakettle into the ocean at that point.

The sun was hot over head, not a cloud in the sky. There was much grumble that morning, the sun had risen red as blood. The men aboard had set to work with vigor, holding back on breakfast even until the ship was set to weather a storm. You thought it was poppycock. Though the air was thick and humid, the barometer had been reading steady all day. You hadn't questioned it out loud though, you had just set in to help. Sooner it was done, sooner breakfast could proceed. And if there was one thing you would miss about civilization and people it would be a proper meal.

And it was almost lunch. Your last proper meal among men. You had finished rechecking that all your supplies were stored properly in the little boat that would get you to shore and it all felt right. Good. You could see some men milling about, lazily finishing up their work as they waited for the announcement to report to mess. 

The sky became dark all at once. 

The men around you looked alarmed, hell, you were alarmed! You had just been looking at the damned sky! There hadn't been a blasted cloud on the horizon's edge! Now the sun that struggled through gaps in the clouds was being choked out, the ocean turbulent. In a sort of organized chaos, the sailors began to work to get the ship storm ready but you were frozen, a cold feeling of dread crawling up your chest.

There was a loud, metallic clang from somewhere deep under the ship.

The organization of the chaos was lost.

"I told you that man was a fuckin'  _ Jonah. _ "

You knew that was directed at you, but the barbed insult fell on deaf ears. Did they not understand? If you were Jonah, this was the whale. And as the banging grew more incessant, louder as it moved up the side of the ship, you wondered if they knew that throwing you to it would do them no favors.

You grabbed what you could. You had to think rationally. If you ended up in the water you couldn't bring anything that would weigh you down. You lashed your backpack that had been sitting loose in the dingy down. The little boat itself was unlikely to survive whatever this was, but if it did it would be great to have all your things in one place. Then you turned to the ship, setting about finding practical work to do in the off chance it might aid in getting you out of whatever pickle you have found yourself in. You knew what to do, this is where you thrived after all. Where fear should have settled an inkling of excitement began, choking out the dread that was there before. Danger, Adventure. You could survive this. You were Jake English after all.

The banging grew louder, the water rougher, the waves higher. You were grinning despite the fear on other men's faces. The boat had stopped moving, but there was nothing you could do about that. And it was freeing in a way, where if you were home in society something being so terribly  _ wrong _ would paralyze you. 

Even when all the sailors stopped and stared and you followed their stares to the large tentacles crawling up and onto the deck. Even when you knew you were looking death straight in the eyes you could only think one thing.

To die would be an awfully big adventure.

You had heard in your life many things being broken and torn apart. Love letters, wedding photos, favorite shirts. Guns were loud, so was smashing furniture against walls. Nothing though, you think, could compare to  _ metal _ bring torn apart at welded and bolted seams. You lunged for your little boat. Others seemed to have thought to do the same, setting up boats and life rafts mechanically, like that could save any of you. Somehow you seemed invisible amongst it all. The crew had never really cottoned to you, and now that shit had hit the fan they couldn't care less about you. Couldn't blame them for prioritizing the skins of their own skins and that of their comrades. 

You climbed in your little boat as the ship was finally torn completely in two. Your dingy and it's unfortunate passenger (you) slid unceremoniously into the dark, cold sea.

The boat, as you expected, didn't help or last long. It plunged straight in with no chance of ever being righted, much like yourself. Too quickly you lost which way was up and you were lucky you were not anyone but you or you'd have likely already gulped in a solid lungful of water, wasting what precious air was left in your system. As it was your chest already burned, and you kicked hard towards what you thought was the surface. 

Around you floated ship wreckage and men. Some still struggled like you, some were dead. Most were unconscious and on their way there. It wasn't quite pitch black, but it was dark enough to make it quite a struggle. Light came dimly from what you  _ thought  _ was the surface, though there were also several brave lights from the ship, running off electric generators that had yet to fail from their sudden trip into the ocean. 

And as your vision began to edge into darkness you thought you made it. You reached out, hoping to break the surface but….

It was cold.

It was the metal wreck of the hull, reflecting the watery lights dimly. 

Your chest screamed for air and you think if your eyes weren't stinging from the unwelcome salt water, they'd be stinging for tears. Weakly, you turn to push away from the false hope of freedom into the darkness. Your body was failing you, you used the bright electric lights to navigate but it all felt sluggish. 

You think you saw an angel.

You knew you were dying then. What a way to go out. Kraken of all things! And no one to live to tell the tale. Unless someone did, but that was seeming more unlikely as you stared at the most beautiful man in the world, floating in the unnatural light cut across the wreckage of the ship.

Long gorgeous blond hair floated around the lithe figure, sharp eyes staring right through you. He moved towards you, moved like the water was nothing at all. You suppose an angel wouldn't be bothered by little things such as physics. The last thing you remember is your perfect angel suddenly being so much closer to you, hands reaching out to cup your cheeks.

You woke up sore as all get out. Well, you should back up. You should be focusing on the fact that you woke up  _ at all. _ And you were assuming you woke up because the rocky cave you found yourself in would be disappointing for heaven and pretty tame for hell. 

Sitting up, you took stock of yourself. Everything was blurry, so other than in a dark cave you couldn't exactly place yourself. You were still very wet, despite finding yourself in a warm patch of sunlight. Above you, you see a hole in the top of your cave where the light was streaming in. That would be good to look at later. Well, as much as you could look with your sight as it was. Blast, losing your glasses was the worst. Maybe you had your other pair on you? You began patting yourself down. 

Right, you were sopping wet. So you couldn't have been there long. You seemed to have lost your coat somewhere along the way, but you still had your shirt, shorts and boots with no apparent damage so you count that as a win. You dug through your pockets. Got your multi tool, your compass, and a wet pack of cigarettes and a match book you had traded a (probably dead) sailor for. You also had your wallet for all it was worth, and for nothing better to do you lay the worn leather out on a rock in your spot of sunshine to let it dry out. You set the matchbook and cigarettes out beside it for good measure.

So you weren't dead, but you really weren't in good shape were you?

In front of you was water, presumably where you had washed in. Behind you, a deep dark cave that was unpenetrated by the light coming in from the cave opening or the hole over head. To your left was a stretch of space that was more tan, you assumed it was sand. It'd probably be more comfortable to sleep there if you were stuck here for any length of time. 

And you just might be. Logically, you knew where you had to be. The nearest land to the wreck was the island you were set to explore for the next three months. On the upside, that meant in ninety days the other ship that was supposed to come by to pick you up would arrive. On the downside…

You had only really seen pictures of the island, but even from just that it was clear that more than half of the island was sheer cliff face. You had been set to be dropped off at one of the only accessible stretches of beach on the island, and who knew how far away from that you were. And it wasn't a small island by any means. You could swim to the mouth of the cave and find it a couple hundred yards away, or you could find yourself having to face swimming miles of shale and stone hoping there were enough outcroppings to rest at along the way. Climbing up might be an option, but all it would take was one misstep to end the particular brand of English luck you'd spent your whole life riding.

And you felt sore now, sure. But you still had adrenaline pumping through your veins, who knew what sort of injuries your chemical high was hiding?

A disturbance in the water is what pulled you out of your thoughts of survival, and your hand immediately went to your side for a gun that was no longer there. Presumably at the bottom of the ocean with all your other means of survival. Nervousness flitted through you, only crushed by the thrill of danger that surged after it. You noted that you needed to rethink your emotional priorities later, but what you saw pull itself out of the water had you abandon that train of thought pretty quickly.

Your angel.

You saw him move, toss something towards you, and the click and skitter against the rocks below you had you surprised. Looking down you can't help beaming, your glasses! You gingerly scootched yourself down several rocks until they were within reach, scooping them up and putting them on eagerly before turning back to your mysterious benefactor.

He was as pretty as you remember, though much stranger. In your right mind he obviously was no angel. Instead of ears, delicate looking spiked fins framed his face and how he held himself up on the small rock in the calm cave pool gave you a look at a long powerful looking tail instead of legs. He was stunning and foreign, and still as mythical as you thought before. A mermai- well no. A merman in all his glory.

The look he gave you though was unamused, and it was a bit late when you realized that you had said a fat load of nothing to the man that saved your life. You just had been sitting and staring like some sort of buffoon.

"Sorry about that chap. Quite rude of me. Names Jake. Thanks for uh, saving my life there…" you trailed off, the merman's expression not changing a bit. The only acknowledgement you got at all was a slight flick of his ear fins and the smallest tilt of his head like he didn't quite understand. 

Fuck, of course. Whoever said merpeople could even understand English? This wasn't The Little Mermaid, there were not going to be dancing singing mermaids hidden deep in the ocean. Who even knew how human they were, besides their torso up? Certainly this one seemed to have compassion, but who knew? It could also simply have been curiosity. Before you could ponder your options any further though, the merman had apparently decided he had had enough. He let himself slip back into the water from the rock he had propped himself up on, and you got to see exactly how long and powerful that tail was as he turned and propelled himself back into the deep, leaving you alone once more.

Your regained sight afforded you a lot more detail about your temporary home as you finally got to exploring it. For instance, there were roots that hung down from the hole in the ceiling that had blended into the cave darkness before. Initially that had excited you, but it only took falling on your ass once to realize that whatever tree they were attached to was long dead, the roots too brittle to climb to freedom. There was also a little stream farther back in the cave, a small source of fresh water. So you were stuck there, but you weren't going to immediately die. That was great.

You also find a skeleton.

It's easy to figure why you didn't initially see it, the little camp you found it in was set back a little farther into the cave, closer to the little pool of fresh water. It was curled up on worn blankets, most bones accounted for and unmolested by animals and weather. It looked like whoever it was, they had just gone to bed and never woke back up. You wondered how long they were there. Why they were there. You wondered if this would be your fate too.

You poked around the rest of the little camp for supplies, it's not like your new room mate needed them anymore. There were remnants of a long dead fire, a couple books, and a small survival kit much like the one you lost to the ocean. It was lean, but there were still untouched water purification tablets, an empty canteen, a knife, a length of rope, and sewing supplies that remained useful to you. There was also a long dead flashlight, several dead batteries, and several empty bottles of painkillers that were of less use to you.

The real prizes though were found when you finally got the nerve to face the skeleton again. Next to its head was a crank radio and a pair of large round glasses, by her hand a rifle. Sure, it wasn't your beloved pistols (may they rest in peace,) but there was dry ammunition and everything! The most important thing you found though even put your excitement for the gun aside. What you found was a journal. You flipped it open eagerly, and on the inside was a name in neat looping letters.

_ Property of Jade Harley _

Your heart was pounding. Harley, Harley. You had a whole side of the family with that name. You felt your mind searching for puzzle pieces you locked away long ago as you flip to a random page in the journal.

_ That merman came by again today with more food, but he brought something else as well! He has always been fixated with my glasses, and when he popped out of the water I almost died laughing. Somehow he found a pair of the dorkiest aviator shades in the world. They're so stupid but he seems so proud of them! He kept pointing to my glasses and then pointing to his, it was super cute. _

_ We got to talking though. Well, I was talking and he was doing his best to write out answers in the sand. Like I guessed, there are a lot of noises he makes that I simply can't hear. He may yet have a voice though, we were going over his writing practice today and when I spelt out my name he made a very noble attempt to pronounce it. It makes sense that merfolk don't really know how to speak, they can't exactly do that under water and from what he was trying to explain they don't necessarily have a lot of reason to come to the surface. _

_ He's learning and retaining a lot of words though. Every time he comes by he seems more comfortable trying to communicate. From what I gather he may actually be quite the talker in his own language, so it must be quite frustrating to suddenly not have the words to convey what you want to say.  _

You flip to another random page, your heart beating hard. That can't be your merman, could it? The man she described seemed much more animated, and he understood English well enough. You suppose you don't quite know how long the journal had been there though.

_ Dave came by again today, though this time not alone. He had pulled himself onto his normal seat and I was coming down the rocks when this little blond mop popped out of the water and I was so surprised I almost fell in myself! _

_ He still doesn't talk much, I don't think it's especially comfortable for him. He did manage to tell me that the kid was his brother though and let me tell you, the family resemblance is striking! _

_ The kids eyes are really orange, unlike his brother's red, but that's really the biggest difference. His face is still all baby chub, but I can see where it will be cut so much like his brother's when he gets older. The kids hair is short and has the cutest cowlick in the front when it starts to dry out. Dave told me before that their hair is pretty important to them socially, so I wasn't too surprised when he started fussing at it, but it was still adorable. I can only imagine what he'll look like when it's grown out long like his brother's. _

Well that sounded more like the guy he knew, though much younger. Unless there are a lot of orange eyed mermen who might save humans around. You continued reading.

_ I told him about my little grandson, Jake. I hope he's doing alright without me. Bless my son but neither he or his wife are very attentive parent's and I always regret leaving him with them. I hope he'll be alright if I don't come back. I hope they don't try to fight the will. It's all for him. _

Harley.  _ Harley. _ Oh no, Grandma  _ Harley. _ Tears stung your eyes and you closed the journal.That was quite enough of that for now.

When darkness fell you built a fire of the brittle roots hanging from the ceiling and dry moss you collected from farther into the cave. Your sleep was fitful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to [thesparrowingold](http://thesparrowingold.tumblr.com). I hope you enjoy the fic!  
> This fic, like my others, will not have a regular update schedule until i finish my current project. That being said, I already have chapter two waiting in the wing.  
> As always, you can find me at [uncannycory](https://uncannycory.tumblr.com/) on tumblr  
> Comments and criticism always welcome


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The art for the chapter is courtesy of the wonderful [thesparrowingold](http://thesparrowingold.tumblr.com).  
> I hope you enjoy!  
> 

Waking up in a cave with dappled light across your face would probably be more alarming to anyone else. For you though the warmth of the rocks, the sounds of the waves, it was all a familiar comfort. If it hadn't been for the fact you felt like you had been run over fairly recently, you might have even been able to fool yourself into thinking yesterday had gone right. As it was, you opened your eyes to a cave.

After flipping through the journal the evening before you had busied yourself with little housekeeping things. You had found the late Jade's threadbare clothes and wrapped her bones in them, finding a nice little hidey hole to keep them safe from the tide and elements. After that you had gone as far down the little stream as the fading light of day would allow and rinsed out the worn blankets so you didn't have to sleep on the dust and remnants of the dead. By the time you had built the fire the sun was low enough to tell that you were well and truly fucked to getting to shore. Waking up to the sun in your eyes only confirmed your worst fears. The sun set on the beach, it rose on the cliff faces. As far as you could tell you were as far away as you could be from where you had to go.

The bright morning light made it easier to navigate farther into the cave though, and you took advantage of that to rinse out your salt brittle clothes and wipe down your body as far away from where you'd be drinking as possible. It felt nice to get the salt off your skin, it was already red and angry from friction as you slept. It also gave you time to think.

The closest point your merman could have taken you was the beach, so why would he have brought you here? Was it the familiarity? It's where the last human he seemed to know lived. Though that was still assuming a lot of things, like he was the boy in her journals.

But assuming he was, was he just bringing you to where the last human he knew survived? But… that made no sense. They obviously had the capacity for human intelligence, the merman in her journals (Dave? You would need to go back to find where he got a name…) seemed to learn English quickly, and your own merman had seemed to put the memory of your Grandma's glasses and your own together in his head.

So why bring you here instead of the much more human suited habitat of the beach? The only likely conclusion was that it might be dangerous somehow. Maybe the Kraken lived in the shallows there? Or maybe other merfolk lived there, there seemed to be more of them but neither now nor in the journal did there seem any indication that these mermen reached out to any other of their kind for assistance. Maybe they were hostile to humans? 

You pulled back on your damp undergarments and your shorts while you mulled it all over, taking your shirt, socks and shoes to lay them out in the sun. You didn't want to, but you probably would have to sit yourself down and read more of her journal. You hardly felt you could stomach it, the idea that it just might be _your_ Jade Harley, your Grandma, hit too close to home. But what else were you going to do? The information in that book might be what could get you out of there.

You went to retrieve the journal from where it was stored in your little camp, surprised when you returned to the shore and found that you had a guest waiting patiently.

He looked like he might have been waiting a minute, his long hair slowly drying out and a pronounced cowlick curling at his forehead. You couldn't help but grin a little, yah she was right, it was very cute. He was leaning against a smaller rock in the pool that was closer to the sandy beach you were standing on, his face in one hand as he leveled his intense eyes at you. You wondered if he was saying something you couldn't hear.

"Hello again!" You waved and sat yourself on the pebbly sand, putting the journal to the side for the moment,"Didn't think I'd get the pleasure of seeing you again so soon!"

His ears flick, eyes narrowing. You couldn't place the emotion and you wondered if that should stress you out more than it did. If you were back home, something like that would have set you in a tizzy. The only thing you _did_ feel was a slight panic as the merman slid almost silently back into the water. You didn't want to be alone again! Not here, not stranded like this! It was a strange and new feeling for you, though you found you had no reason to dwell on it as the merman lazily swam closer to the shore.

He pulled himself up onto the sand, and it was only then that you realized he had something slung over one shoulder. He shrugged it off, dropping a net full of fish beside you and looked at you expectantly.

"Oh! Thanks! Haven't eaten in a tick!" He had come to… feed you. Were you some sort of glorified pet to him? You pulled your multitool out of your pocket, and you could feel him watching as you opened the net and grabbed one of the fish that were twitching and moving in distress. You hadn't eaten since yesterday morning though, and had no qualms just preparing the fish right there to eat.

He rolled over from where he had been holding himself on his elbows, moving to sit up like you. His long tail was still mostly in the water, and in the morning light his orange scales shimmered. You offered him half of the fish you butchered and skinned, and he took it carefully in his hands. He was watching you, and though you would greatly would have prefered to cook your half you couldn't bear to walk away. What if he left? You took a bite of it, you liked sushi well enough anyway.

It was the first time you saw his stoic facade falter. He looked absolutely bewildered as you made your way through the filet of fish.

"Yeh?" He had laid his piece down on his lap and hesitantly reached for you, you think to stop you. He froze at your voice and looked perplexed. It reminded you of what your Grandma had said in the journal, it must be frustrating to not have words to convey what you mean. Not that you were still entirely sure how much he understood you in the first place.

In the moment you let your thoughts wander though he seemed to have had an idea. He had turned to lean on one hand and, fish in mouth, he drew something in the sand. When he was done he looked up at you through his long curtain of hair, one brow up. A question then.

Looking at the sand the drawing was actually pretty clear. A very simplified version of what was clearly fire sitting on a little asterisk of logs. He was asking about fire, he was asking about…

"Oh, why didn't I cook it?" Another flick of his ear fins, and he's looking at you again with a blank stare. You were beginning to think he didn't understand and tried to think of a different way to get your point across when he gave you one short nod. Well, that's good then.

"Well I mean it isn't great raw but didn't want to just leave you here to get the fire back up and going. You were nice enough to come here and visit after all…." You smile at him, wondering how much of that he understood. He seemed satisfied with whatever he got out of it though, and moved to sit forward again, finishing the fish that had been in his mouth with a flash of sharp teeth.

" Sooo…" he doesn't move, but his eyes flick to you, " You understand what I'm saying then?"

He looks a little sheepish, his eyes moving to look anywhere but you. Tilting his head to one side, he raised a flat hand parallel to the ground and made an _eeeeh sort of_ motion with it. Well, that was good to know. It meant you hadn't just been talking to a wall, though it still didn't guarantee how much he actually understood.

"So I've a question then," Another short nod, though he was still looking intently at the cave opening. You wondered if he was hearing something you couldn't or if he was avoiding looking at you. "You knew Jade?"

If the chink in his blank mask had surprised you before, the absolute shock on his face and garbled exclamation really took you by surprise. An apology bubbled up but before you could get it out he was gone, plunged into the water and out of sight.

You sighed, you really managed to fuck that up.

_He came by again today to continue our lessons! I've been working hard at memorizing the letters of the writing system he's been teaching me, though it's very strange to learn letters I don't know the sounds of._

You had been flipping through the journal since you had managed to scare your merman away, only stopping to find a nice cool place to store the fish brought to you. You didn't really have a solution for long term food storage, so you'd only have to hope he would come back regularly with food. But putting off those worries, there were not many other things to keep yourself occupied.

_He seemed pretty happy with how much I am remembering, so he started working on something new. I have what he wrote in the sand transcribed on a page at the back of the notebook so I can study it more later._

_He wrote out the English alphabet. He's gotten very good at sounding out words, though it still bothers him that some letters make multiple sounds. I told him that it prevented us from having like a MILLION letters like his alphabet does, but he kinda just tutted at me._

_But he wrote out the alphabet in English, and then he wrote his alphabet out as well as something in his language. I was a little confused, it wasn't a word I had seen before. He said it was his name._

_Now from what he described of how his language is like, it seems to mostly be made of lots of little clicks and grunts and other subvocal sounds. It's not something I could hear or replicate. They seem to have an entire secondary vocal system to produce these noises, and there are dozens and dozens and dozens of these noises, all of them highly individualized._

_I say all this to explain that after much painstaking care, I have what he says is a very very VERY rough approximation of his name._

_And holy shit after all of that I think his name is just Dave._

_Well honestly it's probably closer to Tabe? But he didn't like the T sound, said it was probably closer to another character, and he vetoed the b for a similar reason. Then he had a lot of fun with vowels. I wish I knew IPA better, it would have been easier to teach him that. Alas, all the time Rose spent trying to teach this old dog new tricks was for naught. Beq would have done better._

_Ultimately when he was finally satisfied with how I was saying it, it sounded like Dave with a weird accent. When I told him that we had a name like his in English and that it was, well, Dave, he got very excited. He had to go shortly after that, but I feel that we got pretty far today._

So that was when she learned this other merman's name. It hadn't been very long before he introduced his brother to her. So you wondered…

You thumbed slowly through the pages until you saw a new name pop up, then you went back to the beginning of that entry.

_Dave came by with his little brother again today! He hadn't brought him the last couple times he stopped by, and I'm beginning to think it's because he doesn't really like me._

_Dave said that might be the case, in the way someone says it when it's probably the case. He said that it wasn't uncommon for young merfolk to be pretty distrusting of adults in general, that the fact he and Dave stuck together was kind of weird even among their society. Well, he said it in much fewer words and many more of his goofy drawings, but that was the gist of it anyway._

_He wanted to see if we could translate his name as well, and I THINK he wanted to bring his brother to show him that I'm not a threat. I don't know if it worked, but I did get to see how merfolk communicate in person even if I couldn't hear it._

_He would be talking to me and writing in the sand to me, when he'd look over to his brother. Their ear fins and side fins would flicker and flap, and at one point Dave even took off his silly shades to give him rather pointed looks. Though I couldn't hear what was being said, I could watch a whole conversation unfold in front of me. At one point I think they were doing the equivalent of yelling at each other because they both got pretty animated with their hands, and his little brother at one point thrashed his tail in the water pretty angrily. It makes sense that their language might include so much physical movement, what with sound being limited to the subvocal range underwater._

_Though I don't really know what they were talking about, I'm guessing it has something to do with Dave's use of English. Even after the argument seemed to be over, whenever Dave said or wrote something in English, his brother's ears began to get all twitchy and he looked put out._

_The closest approximation of his name in English is Dirk._

The rest of the entry went on to talk about more of Jade's and Dave's attempts at pairing up sounds and letters between the two languages, and at one point there were a couple rough sketches of the mermen together. It was all rather cute, but despite the fact you got the answers you wanted and then some, you were also left with more questions.

You lingered on a sketch of Dirk. It certainly looked like it could be a younger version of the merman you knew, and he did react very strongly to Jade's name. The likelihood that this _wasn't_ the same merman was pretty low at that point. You wouldn't give yourself the satisfaction of assuming so just yet though. You hopefully would see him again, it would be easy enough to confirm then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to [thesparrowingold](http://thesparrowingold.tumblr.com). I hope you enjoy the fic!  
> This fic, like my others, will not have a regular update schedule until i finish my current project.  
> As always, you can find me at [uncannycory](https://uncannycory.tumblr.com/) on tumblr  
> Comments and criticism always welcome


End file.
